HOUSTON (CBS HOUSTON) -- A University of Houston graduate student says he's conducting a study to hopefully answer the question being asked across the country, "Do more guns reduce crime or not?"

Kyle Coplen, who founded the Armed Citizens Project, is giving away 20-gauge single-shot shotguns to residents in mid- and high-crime neighborhoods to test whether or not the weapon will help reduce crime in the area, according to the group's website. Coplen says the weapons are not of much value to criminals, but are especially useful for citizens looking to protect themselves from criminals.

Let us hope the results are conclusive. Smart man, putting his education to good use!

[RT] A new application will soon allow users to keep posting Twitter updates from beyond the grave, independently using intricate knowledge of your online character to create a virtual continuation of your personality after you die.I promise I won't try and communicate from the Great Beyond when I've pegged out.
"When your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting," says the new application's tagline.When my heart stops beating you'll have to get by without my opinion.
'LivesOn' will let users pursue 'life after death' on their social media profiles, letting the deceased communicate with loved ones. LivesOn will keep posting after you kick the bucket, following the example of the DeadSocial platform.

#1
Ya, sounds great, but does it work like "Hi, I'm unable to come to the phone right now, but if you leave a message, I'll get right back to you as soon as I can...promise. And oh by the way its hot as Hell down here, but don't worry I'm staying at your new place, which is under final construction right now, they are doing the putch list...see you next Thursday. Chaio!"

[An Nahar] The U.S. Postal Service is looking to fashion as it struggles financially.

The agency, which prides itself on delivering almost 40 percent of the world's mail, announced it plans to launch a clothing and accessories line and has signed a licensing deal with apparel company Wahconah Group, Inc.

"This agreement will put the Postal Service on the cutting edge of functional fashion," corporate licensing manager Steven Mills said in a statement Tuesday.

"The main focus will be to produce Rain Heat & Snow apparel and accessories using technology to create 'smart apparel' -- also known as wearable electronics."

USPS tripled its losses in 2012, losing $15.9 billion as the state-owned enterprise faces tough competition and what it calls onerous and unfair retirement funding requirements.

It has also said it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays to save money.

Wahconah, based in the U.S. state of Ohio, is setting up a showroom in New York City's garment district to showcase its creations to the fashion industry, USPS said.

The products -- to eventually be sold in "premier department and specialty stores" -- will at first be available only for men but a women's line is planned down the road.

#21
OK campers, let me fess up that while I have never worked for the USPS, I have spent 30 years in the "business mail industry". I have spent a lot of time looking at the business of mail.
The USPS fiscal problems have to do a lot with governmental oversite, from the calculation for pension thresholds to a government mandated service level. Yet they are the finest cheapest "postal service" in the world.
"Every address, every day" down to the last igloo on the Alaskan isles, last shack up the Bayou, most gun infested street in Chicago.... six days a week.
If anyone thinks UPS and Fed Ex are going to run the full route, you are mistaken. Fed Ex and UPS RELY on the USPS to deliver tons of deliveries every day to whats know as "the last mile"
If the USPS were cut free to make business decisions based upon todays logistical and business realities, a first class letter could deliver at a profit for .40. Also lots of "not for profit" discounts are used to fundraise for organizations that handle a lot of cash.

[REUTERS] Tunisian leaders began the search for a new prime minister on Wednesday to try to lead the North African nation out of its gravest political crisis since an uprising that inspired a wave of Arab revolts two years ago.

Rached Ghannouchi, the powerful head of the main Islamist Ennahda party, said the group had not named anyone to replace Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who resigned on Tuesday, but that he expected a new government to emerge this week.

"We need a coalition government with several political parties and technocrats," Ghannouchi told news hounds after talks with secular President Moncef Marzouki.

Jebali quit after his plan for an apolitical technocrat cabinet to prepare for elections failed. He had proposed it after the liquidation of opposition leader Chokri Belaid on February 6 shocked Tunisia and widened Islamist-secular rifts.

[An Nahar] Clashes between soldiers and residents left two dead and three injured in southeastern Ivory Coast, the government said Wednesday.

Locals clashed with troops from the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI) on Sunday and Monday "causing the death of two people and injuring three" in the village of Affery, said a statement from the council of ministers.

Affery is near the town of Akoupe, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the economic capital Abidjan.

Local media reported that the two people killed were civilians.

Police would be sent to replace troops in the area, the government said, adding that the situation was now calm.

Tensions have regularly flared in Affery and in regions home to supporters of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo... Former President-for-Life of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011. Laurent lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and he refused to vacate the presidential palace. French troops assisted the Oattara forces in extricating him from his Fuhrerbunker..., currently held in The Hague where he faces charges of war crimes.

A source that wished to remain anonymous said that locals in Affery were regularly forced to hand over money and goods to soldiers despite a government crackdown on corruption.

[Egypt Independent] Greece braced for a 24-hour general strike called by the two main unions in protest against austerity measures, ahead of a scheduled audit by the country's international creditors.

Doctors, lawyers and teachers are among several professions expected to abstain from their duties on Wednesday in the strike organized by private sector union GSEE and public sector union ADEDY.

"We are fighting for collective bargaining agreements, for measures to be finally taken against unemployment and to ensure our democratic and working rights," GSEE said in a statement released on Monday.

Communist-affiliated union Pame was the first to call the strike.

Although most public transport will be operating, buses and train services will suffer problems because of planned work stoppages during the day.

Air traffic will also be disrupted with cancellations and alterations in flight schedules.

Ships will remain docked throughout the day, disrupting ferry services to the islands, as the Panhellenic Seamen's Union is participating in the strike.

Greece's conservative-led, three-party coalition government insists there is no alternative to the harsh austerity program demanded by the country's creditors in return for vital loans.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.